Friday, December 11, 2015

Nemeth Receives Suspension From Disciplinary Committee

MLS' disciplinary committee came out with a number of suspensions and fines from the 2015 MLS Cup playoffs, one of those suspensions involves Sporting KC's Krisztian Nemeth. Nemeth received a one game suspension and an undisclosed fine for violent conduct that endangered the safety of an opponent in KC's loss to Portland in the Wildcard Round. In the 75th minute, with KC down 1-0 to the Timbers, Nemeth fouled Portland forward, Lucas Melano. Melano went to ground and the whistle was blown. Nemeth though, after the whistle had gone kicked the ball into the head of Melano. The play caused an uproar on Portland's bench and in the stands as it occurred right in front of the benches. Nemeth was only given a yellow card on the play. Nemeth will now miss Kansas City's opener to the 2016 MLS season.

The action of the disciplinary committee, while justified has set off some anger among Kansas City fans about why more action wasn't taken from the game. Specifically KC fans are wondering why no punishment was handed out to Rodney Wallace or Fanendo Adi for their actions in the game. Wallace was carded in the 69th minute for clipping Tim Melia's head as he raced onto a ball. Some KC fans are arguing that Wallace left his foot hanging low in an attempt to catch Melia on the play. The second incident occurred later in the game when Adi and Matt Besler were jostling for a high ball in the air. Adi brought an elbow up and caught Besler in the nose causing a bloody nose for Besler. Neither incident though was met with any comment by the disciplinary committee.